'Hunger Seder': A new taste for an ancient ritual

Matzo will never have tasted so good to seven high school students this Passover.

The group of students from schools in Tustin and Irvine held a "hunger Seder" just a few days before Passover last week at their synagogue, Congregation B'nai Israel. They went without the traditional matzo and the roasted shank bone characteristic of a Seder. Instead of wine or grape juice, they drank fruit punch and ate 99-cent bread with processed cheese.

Passover starts Monday night and ends April 2. The Jewish holiday marks the freeing of the ancient Israelites from Egypt and is usually celebrated with a Seder, or ritual dinner. Each item of food tells a story, usually of the Jews' emancipation. The students' Seder instead told the story of hunger in their community, said the congregation's cantor Marcia Tilchin.

"When we celebrate Passover, we have special foods for the holiday and they're symbolic," said Tilchin, who oversaw the group of 10th-graders leading the Seder. "We use them to tell a story."

The food served at the Seder wasn't kosher for Passover, but symbolized the kinds of foods eaten at a Seder.

Replacements for the traditional foods helped the students put a contemporary spin on an old story. Between blessings, participants took turns reading about homelessness and poverty in the U.S. The "Four Questions," designed for young children to inquire about the meaning of the holiday, were instead phrased to address the effects of hunger.

The groceries to feed the 30 or so people who attended the hunger Seder cost about $71. Students looked for whatever savings they could while shopping together, opting for white bread instead of whole wheat and canned pears for dessert instead of fresh fruit.

Alexis Fernández, a spokeswoman for California Food Policy Advocates, said the hunger Seder participants' meal may have been modest, but food stamp allotments sometimes buy even less food. In 2012, the average food stamp recipient received $4.80 per day, or $1.60 per meal, Fernandez said.

"Certainly there are many traditional foods that families eat during a Seder that an impoverished family could not afford," said Michelle Stuffman, spokeswoman for the nonprofit foundation Mazon, which compiled the information for the hunger Seder. "But the goal isn't to get people to live the way impoverished people do. It's more to raise awareness about the challenges that people in poverty face."

Students who took part in the Seder said the meal opened their eyes to problems they don't often encounter in Tustin or Irvine.

"It might not be the most realistic, but the message is that we need to change how the system operates and be more conscious of those around us," said Courtney Widerman, 15, a Northwood High School student who helped organize the Seder.

Modifying the usual Passover story with something like a hunger Seder is a way to preserve the Jewish traditions and remind those at the table of modern struggles they can help ease, said Benjamin Hubbard, a religion professor at Cal State Fullerton.

"I think it's a beautiful concept," said Hubbard of the hunger Seder. "The Seder is meant to symbolize escaping from slavery, and certainly escaping from poverty is analogous."